1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food composition and pharmaceutical composition, particularly to a food composition and pharmaceutical composition containing Lactobacillus and used for anti-inflammation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Probiotics, according to the internationally published literature, are now defined as active microorganisms that are capable of promoting host health. Probiotics have been identified for promoting human health since end of last century with subsequent preceding research for scientific validation. Probiotics were first identified with capabilities in mitigating gastrointestinal upset symptoms, and till now, gastrointestinal moderation is still one of most important applications for probiotic products.
However, in addition to applications in gastrointestinal tracts, applications of probiotics in immune modulation have started to emerge in recent years and have been proven with booming literature and research related to probiotics and immune modulation. There are many ongoing research topics of probiotics applied in immunity, such as immunity enhancement, allergy modulation, mitigation in auto-immune diseases, anti-inflammation and so on. Ordinary oral LAB (lactic acid bacteria) products may only be provided with gastrointestinal modulation for health, and despite of thousands of natural existing LAB strains, only few of them are provided with characteristics in immune modulation or even anti-inflammation. Only few LAB strains have been identified and proven with immune modulation till now. LAB strains that are provided with special effects for human health are called functional probiotics, and are determined based on specific strains instead of species. (Guidelines for the evaluation of probiotics in food; Report of joint FAO/WHO working group on drafting guidelines for the evaluation of probiotics in food; London Ontario, Canada April 30 and May 1, 2002: 1-7)
Anti-inflammatory probiotics may contribute for alleviating vaginitis, particularly via oral route of administration to achieve accelerated vaginitis mitigation. There have been many domestic and international literatures reporting probiotics used for anti-vaginitis. As for in vitro assay, Kaewsrichan et al. (2006) reported that Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus jensenii are found to secret H2O2 and bacteriostatic compounds for suppressing and eliminating pathogenic bacteria in the vagina. Strus et al. (2005) reported that growth of vaginal candidiasis is found to be suppressed after co-culture with Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum. Atassi et al. (2006) reported that. Lactobacillus gasseri is added to a co-culture system where cells are adhered by pathogenic strains by co-culture of HeLa cells (simulating vaginal mucosa endothelial cells) with pathogenic strains for vaginitis, Gardnerella vaginalis and Prevotella bivia and it is found that the adherence of Gardnerella vaginalis and Prevotella bivia to HeLa cells is blocked by Lactobacillus gasseri, particularly at pH=4.5-5.5. It shows that the existence of probiotics contributes to the suppression and elimination of pathogenic strains causing vaginitis and maintenance of mild acid vaginal mucosa, which is resulted in a stimulating factor for suppressing pathogenic strains and activating probiotics. The above-mentioned literatures have proven that probiotics are capable of counteracting pathogenic strains for vaginitis to improve vaginitis symptoms.
As for clinical trials for LAB, Shalve et al. (1996) reported that the 60% of vaginitis patients, in contrast to 25% for placebo, revealed improvement after taking yogurt containing 108×Lactobacillus acidophilus for 2 months. Barrons et al (2008) reported that 88% of vaginitis patients, in contrast to 38% for acetic acid, revealed improvement after treated with tampons immersed with yogurt containing Lactobacillus acidophilus and 5% acetic acid for 4-8 weeks. Falagas et al. (2007) reported that 87.5% of vaginitis patients revealed improvement after taking a capsule containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus fermentum (>109) each day for 60 days.
However, only few LAB strains are resistant to acid and bile salt and provided with capability of adherence to mucosa endothelial cells and viability through gastrointestinal tract and it is necessary to screen for functional probiotics promoting health.
To sum up, it is now a current goal to identify suitable LAB for functional probiotics that are capable of anti-inflammation, particularly to anti-vaginitis.